Meet the man behind Apple India‘s EMI idea

If iPhone sales in India shot up three times within months of Apple introducing anEMI scheme for the smartphone, part of the credit goes to Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO of the country's largest cellphone retail chain The Mobile Store.

The US technology giant piloted the scheme that lets buyers pay for their iPhones in monthly installment under Chakrawarti, 46, and today he is one of the few trade partners Apple directly consults. And Apple is not alone.

In just two years after joining the Essar Group owned The Mobile Store, Chakrawarti has become the Man Friday in India for top smartphone makers including Samsung and Nokia.

When Nokia was planning to launch its latest Windows Phone 8 devices Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, Chakrawarti helped the Finnish handset maker devise a marketing plan two months before the launch.

Samsung, the largest handset maker in India as well as the world, regularly seeks his input before any crucial launch. "Being in a customer facing role, Himanshu understands the market pretty well. We strongly value his insights," Vineet Taneja, Samsung India's country head for mobiles, says.

When Taneja took charge of the business in March, Chakrawarti was one of the first persons in the trade that he met. Of course he is the head of the country's largest cellphone retail chain with 800 stores in 100 cities.

But more than that, it is Chakrawarti's understanding of the consumer that makes him a sought-after person among smartphone makers. For instance, he introduced the EMI system of payment in The Mobile Store two years back and almost a third of transactions for smartphones started happening through this route and consumers started increasing their purchase budget.

Today, the retail chain's average selling price of smartphones at Rs 19,000 is much higher than the industry average of Rs 8,000. And Chakrawarti expects it to increase it further with the launch of a series of Rs 35,000-plus smartphones including Samsung S4, iPhone 5, BlackBerry Z10, Sony Xperia Z and HTC One. He says selling such devices requires experiential marketing skills. "If handset brands have to succeed in the top-end of smartphones, modern trade has to play a big role," he says.

"We understand the needs of consumers and can sell them with an experience which general trade cannot match up to." Little wonder, The Mobile Store is currently the largest revenue contributor and sales point in the country for all the top handset brands — Samsung, Apple, Sony, Nokia, BlackBerry and HTC.

Chakrawarti, who took charge of The Mobile Store when modern retail in mobile phone was bleeding, revived the business by shutting down 400 unviable stores and opening 100 new stores in the last two years.

Currently, all the stores are either profitable or at the point of breakeven. This IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore alumnus also introduced sales innovations such as EMI concept, bundling deals and mobile phone insurance.

All this has helped The Mobile Store increase the average sale price for smartphones by 50% in the past two years since he took charge. Chakrawarti started his career at Lakme and then moved to Heinz before making a shift to retail in 2000 as the marketing head of Trent Ltd's fashion retail format Westside.

Subsequently he played a key role in the Tata Group's acquisition of books and music retail chain Landmark. Before joining The Mobile Store, Chakrawarti was the chief operating officer at Landmark.

Chakrawarti says The Mobile Store is completely different from Landmark. "I was previously managing fewer number of large-scale outlets spread over 10,000-30,000 sq ft. But now, it's about managing many smaller outlets spread over 400-500 sq ft," he says.

At Landmark he was selling high-margin products with a longer shelf life. In contrast, mobile phones have much less margin and high risk of getting obsolete, with a new feature coming in every three months and premium models becoming outdated within a year.

"Inventory management is critical due to obsolescence, which can have a direct hit in profitability. We now operate with one of the shortest stock of 17-18 days inventory which helps in faster turnaround and cash flow," he says.

Chakrawarti owns three mobiles — the iPhone 4, BlackBerry Torch and Sony Xperia Z — and two tablets — Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy tab. Some industry insiders say he has not yet been properly tested in the mobile retailing, as he has not gone through the full cycle of the boom and lull.

"This could become a big handicap for Chakrawarti when the market becomes stiff," says a top executive of a leading handset brand. The man himself says three things matter the most in retail — customer orientation, process orientation and result orientation of sales staff. "It is on these parameters that I want to improve," he says.